Powerful Incentive Technology

7 Incentive Rewards That Inspired the MOST B2B Customer Loyalty in 2018

by:
Luke KreitnerMarch 21, 2019

The results are in. The people have spoken. Straight from data pulled from Incentive Solutions' online catalog, from millions of incentive rewards, the most popular rewards from 2018 are…

OK, OK, rewards are the fun part of an incentive program. I get it. But I want to take a moment to talk about why incentive programs are important in the first place and how great rewards can help businesses achieve their goals.

Increasingly, our clients are looking for ways to optimize their channel sales. By incentivizing the key players throughout the sales channel, companies can achieve sales growth, collect valuable marketing data they might not have access to otherwise, and increase customer loyalty. Whether that customer happens to be the end consumer or a B2B channel partner, who buys products at a various point in the sales channel, such as a contractors, dealers, or distributors.

With a little bit of structure, strategy, and the right incentive software, your channel partners can be rewarded for the actions that help your business achieve its goals. However, the effectiveness of an incentive program is also tied to the desirability of its rewards.

So it’s important to keep a pulse on what customers and channel partners respond to and what rewards feel meaningful to them. Without further ado, the most popular rewards of 2018 for channel management and customer loyalty….

Most Redeemed Rewards of 2018

Fandango Movie Ticket: Coming in at number one, reclaiming its belt from last year, are Fandango Movie Tickets. The movies are one of America’s favorite pastimes—an experience the whole family can enjoy. This low-point item is attainable and consistently popular. Number Redeemed for 2018: 7,505

Redbox Movie Rental: Not much has changed for the top two spots. Coming in at second, for the second year in a row, Redbox movie rentals are another reward that provide immediate gratification with a very low point-cost that participants can share with the people in their life. Number Redeemed for 2018: 4,079

Amazon Gift Card: A new contender for 2018. Ranging in values from $25 - $100 (with the $100 being far and away the most popular), Amazon Gift Cards give your participants flexibility. Slightly higher point-cost but still very attainable. Number Redeemed for 2018: 2064

Lowe’s® $50 Gift Card: Ever practical, those channel partners. Lowe’s® narrowly edged out their heated competitor (coming later). It looks like customer loyalty isn’t the only thing people are working to improve this year. Home & Garden remains a popular category in regards to reward redemption. Number Redeemed for 2018: 833

Apple® AirPods: Tech items finally make an appearance on our Top 7. AirPods were all the rage this year. Apple® once again proved its ability to make a splash in the earbud game. Just don’t lose them! As hard as they can be to keep up with, I’m sure we’ll be seeing these on future lists. Number Redeemed for 2018: 767

The Home Depot® $100 Gift Card: OK, so they might have missed their rival in terms of sheer quantity. But it was by a very narrow margin considering these gift cards went for twice as many points. It’s worth noting that all of our gift cards are branded, so you’re participants remember your company as they enjoy their rewards. Number Redeemed for 2018: 741

Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote: Rounding out our Top 7, the Amazon Fire TV Stick once again makes an appearance, dropping four spots from last year’s list. For a tech item, the Fire TV Stick is very affordable from a point standpoint. Number Redeemed for 2018: 645

Most Redeemed Categories

Once again, our Top 5 most popular categories for point redemption (by volume) remains unchanged from last year. However, in terms of redemption by total cash value, Electronics, was far-and-away our top performer to the tune of $4.5 million. Customers and channel partners will really put in the work for those big-ticket tech items!

Uniquely Yours

Uniquely Yours is our program for the people with astounding numbers of points—the cream of the crop. Basically, we’ll stop at nothing to get your best participants what they want. Our catalog is extensive, but it doesn’t stop there. We do custom reward redemptions for the top performers. I’m talking a family set of Rolexes® or his-and hers-Ford F-150s®.

So while Uniquely Yours only accounted for 355 items in 2018, those items were worth a whopping $1.3 million. We’re in the process of putting together some stories about our absolute craziest reward redemption stories, so be on the lookout for that.

In the meantime, hopefully this provided some inspiration for your incentive program. Best of luck to your customer loyalty and channel partner management goals of 2019!